Fact: The Toronto Blue Jays will win more games without Bo Bichette at shortstop.
Baseball fans instinctively judge players by the most visible statistic: offense. So many look at things like home runs, batting average, OPS and other things that show up in highlight packages.
By that measure, moving on from Bo Bichette and replacing him with Andrés Giménez can look like a downgrade at first glance, but baseball games are not won by highlights, they are won by runs created and runs prevented.
When you start layering in the full set of data from defense and baserunning to things like total WAR value, the argument becomes surprisingly strong that replacing Bichette with Giménez could produce more wins over a full season.
Defense: A Run Prevention Gap That Is Hard to Ignore
Shortstop is one of the most valuable defensive positions on the field, where every extra ball converted into an out prevents scoring opportunities.
According to Baseball Reference, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) heavily favour Giménez.
Andrés Giménez
2022: +20 DRS
2023: +10 DRS
2024: +9 DRS
Total over three seasons: +39 runs saved
Bo Bichette
2022: −9 DRS
2023: −16 DRS
2024: −4 DRS
Total over three seasons: −29 runs saved
That’s a 68-run swing defensively over three seasons.
In WAR terms, 10 runs=1 win, which means the defensive gap between the two players has been worth roughly 2 wins per season.
That’s an enormous difference coming from a single position and this isn’t theoretical becasue Baseball Reference’s Range Factor and Total Zone metrics tell the same story.
Range Factor per 9 innings
Giménez: consistently above league average
Bichette: consistently below league average
The difference in lateral range alone results in dozens of additional balls turned into outs every year.
Baserunning: Quiet Value That Adds Real Runs
Another category where the gap is significant is baserunning, as the Baserunning Runs (Rbaser) metric measures how many runs a player adds with his legs.
Andrés Giménez
2022: +4 baserunning runs
2023: +2 runs
2024: +3 runs
Bo Bichette
2022: +1 run
2023: −2 runs
2024: 0 runs
Let me take this one step further…
Stolen Bases (career averages)
Giménez: 20+ SB pace
Bichette: 10 SB pace
Extra bases taken, double plays avoided, and stolen bases all translate into additional scoring opportunities and even a modest +3 to +5 run baserunning advantage adds another half-win per season.
Offensive Context: The Gap Is Smaller Than Perception
The biggest pushback to replacing Bichette is obvious becasue Bichette is a better hitter and historically, that’s definitely true.
Career Batting Line
Bo Bichette
AVG: .293
OPS: .813
OPS+: 122
Andrés Giménez
AVG: .261
OPS: .728
OPS+: 104
Bichette is clearly the stronger offensive player but the gap narrows when you consider positional expectations and recent seasons.
2024 WAR
Bichette: ~3.0 WAR
Giménez: ~4.0 WAR
Even with weaker offensive numbers, Giménez produced more total value because of elite defense and baserunning.
That’s the central point I’m trying to make here…WAR rewards complete players, not just hitters and it also happens to have the word WINS in it.
WAR Comparison: Total Player Value
Looking at WAR totals over the past few seasons:
Andrés Giménez
2022: 7.0 WAR
2023: 4.0 WAR
2024: 4+ WAR
Bo Bichette
2022: 5.0 WAR
2023: 4.9 WAR
2024: ~3 WAR
Giménez’s elite 2022 season showed his ceiling: a Gold Glove defender producing superstar WAR value even without elite offense and when that defensive value stabilizes around +10 DRS per year, the floor becomes incredibly high.
Pitching Staff Impact: The Hidden Multiplier
You also cannot ignore that great middle infield defense changes the way pitchers attack hitters because when pitchers trust their shortstop to convert ground balls into outs, they can throw more sinkers, pitch to contact earlier in counts, and avoid high-stress strikeout attempts
This improves pitch efficiency, bullpen health, run prevention, and pitcher effectiveness across the board.
The Blue Jays’ pitching staff features multiple pitchers who benefit from strong infield defense because of their effective split finger, sinker, etc.
Replacing a negative defender with a Gold Glove defender in the middle infield can quietly improve the entire staff.
Run Prevention Is the New Currency of Winning
Modern analytics consistently show that run prevention scales better than offensive bursts over a full season and elite defensive shortstops are among the most valuable assets in baseball.
Time and time again this proves to be true because they impact pitcher performance, double-play rates, infield hit prevention, and overall run differential
And, it’s important to point out here that run differential is one of the strongest predictors of wins.
The Real Question
This debate isn’t about which player is more exciting, it’s about which player contributes more total value in the current roster structure.
There’s no doubt at all that Bichette brings star power and offense but when you combine:
+10 to +20 defensive runs saved
Superior baserunning
Comparable WAR totals
Run prevention impact on the pitching staff
The math starts to point toward a surprising conclusion that replacing Bichette with Giménez at shortstop could very realistically lead to more wins over 162 games.
In baseball, wins, and not narratives…are the only statistic that truly matters.
